HackerNews Readings: The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense

All Time Past 6 Months

Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection

John E. Sarno MD

4.4 on Amazon

2 HN comments

The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain

John E. Sarno M.D.

4.5 on Amazon

2 HN comments

To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others

Daniel H. Pink and Penguin Audio

4.5 on Amazon

2 HN comments

Feeling Great: The Revolutionary New Treatment for Depression and Anxiety

David D. Burns

4.7 on Amazon

2 HN comments

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Douglas R Hofstadter

4.7 on Amazon

2 HN comments

The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense

Gad Saad

4.8 on Amazon

2 HN comments

Alcoholics Anonymous

AAWS

4.8 on Amazon

1 HN comments

The Laws of Human Nature

Robert Greene, Paul Michael, et al.

4.8 on Amazon

1 HN comments

Lifespan: Why We Age―and Why We Don't Have To

David A. Sinclair PhD and Matthew D. LaPlante

4.6 on Amazon

1 HN comments

Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha

Tara Brach, Cassandra Campbell, et al.

4.7 on Amazon

1 HN comments

The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity

Nadine Burke Harris M.D.

4.7 on Amazon

1 HN comments

Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Jaggi Vasudev (Sadhguru), et al.

4.7 on Amazon

1 HN comments

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

Sebastian Junger and Hachette Audio

4.6 on Amazon

1 HN comments

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Angela Duckworth and Simon & Schuster Audio

4.6 on Amazon

1 HN comments

Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal

Mark Bittman

4.4 on Amazon

1 HN comments

Prev Page 2/3 Next

Sorted by relevance

mbostlemanonMar 23, 2021

I'm reading Gad Saad's The Parasitic Mind at the moment. His metaphor of how parasitic ideas can take hold within a group and then take control of the host seems to be on display here.

throwawayseaonMar 28, 2021

Worse, I think social media censorship exacerbates the issue in certain cases. For example pointing out that the number of unarmed Blacks killed by police is actually very low (https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/poll-44-of-liberals-say-...) gets you mass reporting from dedicated activists and results in your post being blocked or account bans. Because the medium (Twitter) is itself editorializing the content through censorship, the mass amplification of bad ideas can happen unabated since others don’t get to push back.

It’s funny that “virality” was once seen as a positive feature of social media. Gad Saad, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology, explores the concept of “idea pathogens” (that infect minds and spread like viruses) in his book The Parasitic Mind (https://bookshop.org/books/the-parasitic-mind-how-infectious...). You can hear him speak about this concept in his interview on the Jordan Peterson podcast (https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/podcast/gadsaad/). Social media is the breeding ground for idea pathogens.